Lola Adeuyan

The aim of this focus group was to analysis five members from the Gen Y associates. I preformed a focus group that included three male college students and two female students. My main goal was to find out how they felt about using social networking websites.

Focus Group Rationale

The rate at which social networking is increasing growing in this modern era is rapid. As people are getting a little more personal with the information which they are providing for other social networkers and security risks are also applying. As I mentioned before, the main goal towards this focus group is to find out how much the Gen Y members feel secure with the information they provide for other social net workers. By having this knowledge we can provide advice for them.

Setting and Participants

For my focus group participants, I asked five of my closest associates that I see every day to participate in the focus group. The setting was at a friend’s house on the Tuesday 23, 2010.
· Marie 20, a Towson University Junior with a major in Physical therapy.
· Emmanuella 23, a Morgan State University graduate with a degree in Chemistry.
· Derrick 27, a NYU graduate with a degree in Criminal Law and a minor in psychology.
· Joel 22, a UMBC senior with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in French.
· Afolabi 20, a UMBC sophomore with a major in accounting.

Session Topics

During the session, we discussed the following…

Who owns any kind of a social networking account?
Not surprising to me, all five of my participants had different social networking sites in which they were involved in one way or the other. But the only thing that surprised me was the fact the male participants had a special thing for a site like Twitter instead of Facebook. When I asked why they preferred such a site, Joel said that Twitter is a more mature than Facebook and he also said “everyone and their grandparents are on Facebook, how weird is it when your grandma is comment on your pictures from your Vegas trip….that is to freaky for me”

How much information is provided for other social networkers to see?
Just like I thought, everybody agreed that they provide as little as possible for people to view because you don’t know the kind of people who are out there.

How many think the social networking sites are safest place?
Two out of my participants agreed that it was safe up to an extent while the other three disagreed bitterly. They stated numerous reasons which they disagree with the security of anybody that is on these sites.

Findings

I found out the participants
· All used some form of social networking whether it was Facebook or Twitter or with some participants they used both.
· Some believe that their information is safe on the social networking sites while the others totally disagree.

With these findings we should be able to provide advice for our proximity members so that they will view their social networking sites a little different.